TOUR: ACME Markets - Freehold, NJ

ACME Markets
Opened: early 2000s

Previous Tenants: none

Location: 3241 US-9, Freehold, NJ

Photographed: December 2020

We are here for our first store in Freehold! When we passed through Farmingdale yesterday, I mentioned it's about five miles from the nearest big-chain stores, one of which is this 49,000 square foot ACME. Built in the early 2000s, this was one of two ACMEs at the time in Freehold, the other of which lasted just over a year. This one seems to do a very brisk business and was quite busy at the time of my visit. Acme Style has covered the other Freehold store here and this location here. That other Freehold location briefly became a Top Tomato Superstore (see Asbury Park Press coverage here, but unfortunately it's behind a paywall), and is now being prepared for a Livoti's, whose Aberdeen and Middletown locations we saw and whose Englishtown location is coming soon to the blog.

(You can see the healthy crowd at this store by the cars in the parking lot.) I must admit here that I have a certain fondness for these early 00s ACMEs, along with the Albertsons Marketplace decor, but when these early 00s stores receive the Quality Built decor oh boy that's the good stuff. Acme Style caught the store prior to its QB renovation, so their tour linked above is a good place to start. Now let's head in and check out this store post-renovation...

The layout wasn't really changed during the remodel, but all or most of the fixtures were replaced. Here we see the overview of the grand aisle: deli in the front left corner with produce on the left side wall, bakery on the right side in an island, and meat/seafood at the back of the grand aisle. As Acme Style mentions, this store does not have a pharmacy.

A very large deli. It seems to me that the store feels larger than its 49,000 square feet, but that's likely a result of the spacious layout and high ceiling.

Bakery is looking fantastic in the island, but a little lonely. I'm not sure why there aren't any photos accompanying this department.

A look at the newly remodeled produce department with new cases. Even produce seems a bit light on the black and white pictures, though.

Seafood and meat at the back of the grand aisle, with the newer Lancaster Brand signage. See an example of a slightly older Quality Built remodel in Lincroft -- there's a difference in the Lancaster Brand logo, the produce cases aren't lit as these are, and the older wood-look flooring is darker and more brown/less gray.

Meats line the back wall with another updated Lancaster Brand logo. Notice that the store is almost a square, being almost as deep as it is wide.

Proudly Serving You Since 1891 on the back of the bakery department lining the first grocery aisle. Because of the store's depth, the aisles are split in half from front to back...

A look across the center dividing aisle of the store.

Floral -- which seems way bigger than the other ACME floral departments I've seen -- opposite the entrance from the deli.

The grocery aisles seem fairly straightforward, with no fewer than four aisle markers in each aisle (two markers in the front, two in the back).

Frozen foods line aisle 15, and one side of aisle 16. I don't believe these cases have been replaced, and the flooring certainly hasn't although it's been refinished...

Looking good. And dairy takes up the back corner of the store, then continues down the last aisle...

The yellow is probably the boldest color in the Quality Built decor package, a very attractive but admittedly kind of bland decor package. The newer Albertsons decor, which appears in other banners, is much brighter and more colorful.

Customer service on the front wall here. And Freehold, the most major town in the immediate area, has certainly been around for quite some time -- but wasn't officially incorporated until 1798.

We get an idea of the amount of business this store seems to do on the crowded front-end here! That wraps up our tour of this store, which competes most directly with a Saker ShopRite -- one of the very few unrenovated stores -- just to the north. But we're going to head a little to the north of that to check out two independent stores in downtown Freehold tomorrow on The Independent Edition!